


and you turn me into someone

by whatifitrainedtoday



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Doug Eiffel Needs a Hug, Doug Eiffel Remembers, F/F, F/M, M/M, i mean it's wolf359 who hasn't died at least once, or like nearly died anyway, they're trying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26839426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatifitrainedtoday/pseuds/whatifitrainedtoday
Summary: doug remembers, and everything changes, and everything stays the same.title from You Take Me As I Am by Stornoway
Relationships: Doug Eiffel & Daniel Jacobi, Doug Eiffel & Isabel Lovelace, Doug Eiffel & Renée Minkowski, Doug Eiffel/Hera
Comments: 5
Kudos: 29





	and you turn me into someone

It’s a quiet morning. Hera’s playing early 2000s pop music over the speakers, Doug can hear Renée working out downstairs, Isabel and Dominik making breakfast, and the usual slightly concerning noises from Daniel’s room in the basement. Doug is waking up gently, letting himself feel the sun on his face through the crack in the curtains. He becomes aware of a feeling that doesn’t seem to belong to him - a feeling which belongs to Eiffel, not Doug - the feeling that something is slowly but surely going wrong. There’s a feeling, like something prodding at the edges of his brain. There’s something which, although it is wordless, feels like an apology. There’s a sudden red-blue-white burst of pain, and Eiffel remembers. 

Plant monster - Kate - Hera’s laugh - Minkow-Minkow- no, Minkowski - big spider - Anne - the star - someone listening to him across the stars - the feeling of drowning - the feeling of freezing - the feeling of dying - “Hera, I -” - it’s all out of order and it hurts, it hurts, - Lovelace dying - Hera dying - Minkowski almost dying - Hilbert dying - Maxwell dying - how are they all still here - Dear Listeners - Eiffel, we are sorry to make contact like this, but we want you to consider it a gift - Bob? No, not Bob, but close - the presence is gone as soon as it appears - Star Wars - Queen, how had he forgotten Queen - Dolly Parton - Sesame Street - so that’s what that meant - Pryce, rooting through his head, but in reverse, everything coming back, everything coming back. Eiffel becomes dimly aware that he is screaming, and that he is no longer alone in his room, and that he is curled up on the floor with strong arms around him and what sounds like a hundred panicked voices calling his name. 

Eiffel immediately makes the situation worse, something which he now knows he has a talent for, by bursting out laughing. Minkowski and Lovelace are both crouched next to him, with Jacobi hovering awkwardly in the doorway. 

“Doug?” Minkowski says, a multitude of questions clear in her voice, and Eiffel laughs.

“I’m back. I remember. Guys, I’m back.”

There is a long, long silence. Lovelace and Jacobi look sceptical. Minkowski looks like she’s been slapped, and she pulls her hands away from Eiffel.

“Commander, I’m so sorry.”

There’s a noise over the intercom. “It really is you, Doug. Or Eiffel. Whichever. Your face is different.” Eiffel smiles unrestrainedly. 

“Baby, it’s me. I’m sorry for leaving you hanging.” He hears her laugh, and feels like a weight has dropped off his shoulders, because just like before the fact that he has made her laugh has brightened his whole world.

Minkowski is still silent, looking at him as if she’s seen a ghost, which he supposes she sort of has. “I haven’t heard you call me Commander in months.” She leans back, away from him, and studies his face. “Tell me something only Eiffel would know.”

“I mean, I know a few things that I didn’t recently, like that the Star Wars prequels suck, you’ve saved my life more times than I can count, my last words before I forgot everything were pretty similar to that one Doctor Who episode, I once almost died trying to make E.T. phone home through Lovelace, I can -” Eiffel is cut off with a hug which knocks the breath out of him, and is shocked into speechlessness by the unmistakable sound of Minkowski starting to cry. He is momentarily startled, and then wraps his arms around her, feeling her shake as she sobs into his shoulder. 

“I never got to thank you. You gave up so much to get us home, and I couldn’t even thank you for it because you weren’t there.” Minkowski mumbles this into Eiffel’s ratty sweater.

“I mean, I was here. I remember the last few months. I just… Wasn’t all the way here.”

Lovelace has stood up at some point during this, and despite the clear scepticism on her face, something familiar shines in her eyes. “Was it them? Did they do this?”

“Yeah, it was them. Bob and his friends coming for one last chat. Not sure how I feel about them having uploaded me to the cloud before I checked out, but I guess it turned out pretty well.” 

Eiffel prises Minkowski off him gently, and goes to stand up to speak to Lovelace on a more even ground, and promptly blacks out once he’s on his feet. 

He awakens on the floor for the second time that day, head in Minkowski’s lap. He makes eye contact with her and smiles when the unbelievably, painfully familiar look of endeared disappointment flashes across her face. “Doug, you’ve just had your entire life’s worth of memories, a lot of which weren’t exactly fun times, beamed back into your head. Sit the hell down and relax for a bit.” 

Eiffel lifts his head a little despite her protestations and sees that Lovelace has sat back down, hand on his hip, and Jacobi is sat crosslegged against the opposite wall, face almost unreadable. Hera has started to play what was her “Maybe Eiffel will remember” playlist and is now just a selection of good music, and Eiffel unconsciously starts to sing along with Bohemian Rhapsody before realising that oh, shit, he knows the lyrics now, and Minkowski is grinning through tears and Hera is laughing and they’re all together again and maybe, just maybe, things are fixed.


End file.
